It sounds incredible, but in the high-tech city of Bangalore police has been tasked to protect garbage.

And it comes along with the prohibitory order under section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure.

With residents in Mandur — a village 14 kilometres from the city that serves as a landfill site - up in arms against dumping of garbage at their doorsteps, the Greater Bangalore City Corporation sought police protection, even as the agency failed to execute an alternative plan of garbage disposal.

Police officers secure the landfill in Mandur, six kilometres from Bangalore, where residents are outraged at the illegitimate dumping of tons of garbage

So, more than 200 trucks are dumping garbage every day near Mandur under heavy police protection.

About 1,800 tonnes of the 4,500 tonnes of garbage generated by the city is dumped daily in Mandur.

However, 500-plus residents of Mandur have been complaining of various health problems because of indiscriminate dumping of garbage over few years.

For the last three days, the villagers have been staging demonstrations, blocking all entry roads to the village and even threatening to commit suicide.

On Tuesday, the police apprehended 21 villagers for violating the prohibitory orders.

This is not for the first time that Mandur residents are protesting against the unscientific dumping of Bangalore's garbage in their neighbourhood.

Two years ago Bangalore grabbed international attention when garbage was not cleared for more than two weeks because of protests by Mandur residents.

This time, as the situation is spiralling out of control, the GBCC - which doesn't want any negative publicity of its inefficiency - opted for police protection.

The GBCC, which is tasked with keeping Bangalore clean, is yet to find any scientific solution to dispose of waste in an environment-friendly manner.

Villagers from Mandur and surrounding areas protest against the dumping of garbage by the Greater Bangalore City Corporation

Several proposals submitted by technology firms to dispose of waste in an efficient manner are gathering dust in the GBCC office. No solution All the waste generated in Bangalore is disposed of in three sanitary landfill sites on the city outskirts.

Two firms, Terra-firma Biotechnologies and Karnataka Compost Development Corporation, process approximately 600 tonnes of solid wastes.

Contracts have been awarded to two other such firms for handling 2,350 tonnes of solid wastes scientifically, but the processing units are yet to become operational.

Though the firms have taken possession of the land, other permissions are awaited. GBCC commissioner M. Lakshminarayana met the protesting villagers and urged them to allow dumping of wastes for another six months till the waste processing units became operational.

However, the villagers did not budge, prompting the GBCC to dial the police.

Meanwhile, observes say the alleged nexus between garbage contractors and the GBCC officials is delaying the waste processing units.

It is alleged that for every truckload of garbage, the concerned GBCC officials receive a kickback.

For each truckload of garbage, the contractor charges GBCC anything between Rs 25,000 to Rs 30,000.

"Everyone is aware of the nexus between the officials, councillors and the garbage contractors (transporters, who ferry waste to the city's outskirts).

The GBCC has to first break this nexus and simultaneously speed up the waste processing units," said ex-councillor in GBCC, M. Shivappa.

Interestingly, whenever efficient commissioners, such as Ashok B. Dalwai and Rajaneesh Goel, tried to fix the garbage menace by eliminating the contractors in the waste disposal chain and introduced segregation of waste at source for effective disposal, they were shunted out of the GBCC within a few months.

The current situation has caught the attention of Karnataka chief secretary Kaushik Mukherjee who has issued a stern warning to GBCC.

"We have been dumping 2,000 tonnes of waste every day near Mandur. The reason behind this crisis is failure on part of GBCC officials to execute garbage disposal projects. I have asked the commissioner to chalk out plans to treat waste within the next six months. I do not want any conflict between the departments, so I have asked them to coordinate and find suitable land for dumping garbage," he said.

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Bangalore Police guard landfills after residents take to the streets in outrage at 'health problems' caused by illegal dumping